The Standard

2023 Accomplishments Position Industry for Year Ahead

Substantial progress has been made this year on HL7 Da Vinci Project Implementation Guides (IGs), which describe how to use HL7’s Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7 FHIR®) standard for exchanging data to support value-based healthcare and implementations of the guides.

Sizing Up Accomplishments

At the December Da Vinci Community Roundtable, Hans Buitendijk, Da Vinci Project Steering Committee Vice Chair, reviewed progress this year and offered an outlook for 2024.

“We have a number of organizations across the spectrum that have adopted one or more of our [FHIR implementation] capabilities. … That's fantastic in the short number of years that this initiative started to look at what is necessary to make it happen,” Buitendijk said.

“We currently have about eight publishing updates that have been accomplished and quite a few ballot processes that are in flight and being planned for, and there is a good amount of commitment to making this happen. So, we really need to be proud of what we have achieved to date, and particularly in the last year.”

In the year ahead, alignment with emerging regulations, including the final CMS Interoperability Rule, will be a top priority, he pointed out.

Interoperability efforts must go beyond a general set of data to ensure adequate support for public health, research, quality measures and more, he added. “We are all going to impact the ability and the opportunity to share more data over time,” he said.

The key to advancing interoperability by leveraging FHIR, he stressed, is to involve many different parties and develop “the same language where we have a minimum set of capabilities that everybody can support, and leaving room … to grow, to explore, to define new things.”

He also pointed out: “We must continuously raise the bar for what we can exchange and determine what is relevant across many different stakeholders that we should all do in the same way … because the data that we have covered so far is still only a part of the variety of data exchanges that are relevant and can benefit from improvements."

Register Now for January Virtual FHIR Connectathon and Gain Perspective from a New Participant: the Value-Based Performance Reporting Use Case Co-Lead

Those interested in gaining a better understanding of how the HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR®) standard works – and helping to develop specification refinements – should consider attending the upcoming connectathon, which will be held online January 16-18, 2024.

“Connectathons can be an effective way for organizations to initiate or advance their FHIR capabilities,’ Viet Nguyen, MD, HL7 Da Vinci Project Technical Director and HL7 Chief Implementation Officer, says.

Nguyen notes that the numerous tracks within the connectathon event allows organizations to pick and choose which tracks they want to emphasize based on their regulatory or strategic needs.

First-time HL7 FHIR Connectathon participant Teresa Younkin, HL7 Value-Based Performance Reporting (VBPR) Project Co-Lead and Senior Consultant at Point-of-Care Partners, attended the September 2023 event. She says, “The value of the connectathons is to actually get to see the systems work and move from the theoretical to the concrete.”

According to Younkin, connectathons are an opportunity to bridge the gap between the technical and the business. It goes beyond just exchanging bits and bytes; instead, you can see in real time how the data could be ingested and utilized in an organization. Many reference implementations have simple interfaces to make computer code human readable. Having the ability to physically see how this data exchange impacts workflows opens cross functional dialogs, addressing communication gaps that traditionally exist between technical teams and business teams.

October Community Roundtable to be held October 25 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET

Are you interested in learning the latest on the following:

•  Clinical data exchange; coverage, transparency and burden
• Quality and risk use cases
• The HL7 Da Vinci Project’s Implementation Guide foundational assets?

If so, register now for the next Da Vinci Community Roundtable, to be held Oct. 25 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET. The session will offer timely updates on changes made in 2023 to the Da Vinci Implementation Guides and offer an outlook for next year.

“The Power of Collaboration: 2023 HL7 Da Vinci Project Implementation Guide Progress,” will feature presenters discussing Implementation Guide functional enhancements as well as the current status and maturity of the guides to help inform your planning for next year’s HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7® FHIR®) implementation staffing and allocations. Attendees will also learn where they can provide needed input and participation in the use cases.

The Da Vinci Project is a private-sector initiative that accelerates the adoption of HL7 FHIR as the standard to support and integrate value-based care (VBC) data exchange across communities. The goal of the project is to help payers and providers positively impact clinical, quality, cost and care management outcomes, enabling providers to see the right data at the right time for patient-centered care.

The presenters will include:

• Michael Gould, Associate Vice President, Interoperability Strategy, ZeOmega and HL7 Da Vinci Project Architectural Group Co-Lead
• Crystal Kallem, Project Manager, HL7 Da Vinci Project, and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care-Partners
• Mark Scrimshire, PDex Project Lead & Implementation Guide Lead, HL7 Da Vinci Project, and Chief Interoperability Officer, Onyx Health
• Teresa Younkin, Value Based Performance Reporting Co-Lead, HL7 Da Vinci Project PMO and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care Partners

The session is moderated by Alix Goss, HL7 Da Vinci Project PMO, and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care Partners.

The Da Vinci Project’s November Community Roundtable to be held November 30 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET

During November's Community Roundtable, HL7 Da Vinci Project leaders representing providers, payers and EHR vendors will offer an insightful program discussing real-world implementations of Da Vinci’s Implementation Guides.

“Significant Progress: HL7 Da Vinci Project Year-end Review and 2023 Plans,” begins with a review of this year’s program accomplishments and continues with a panel of industry and HL7 Da Vinci Project leaders sharing the impact of corresponding regulations and the proven guides that reduce burden and enable efficient value-based care workflows.

In particular, they will discuss the reality and progress of Da Vinci implementations in a world where HL7 FHIR APIs are becoming the de facto norm for data sharing for clinical data exchange and prior authorization. The session concludes with a preview of the project goals and activities planned for 2023.

The Da Vinci Project’s September Community Roundtable to be held October 26 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET

The next Da Vinci Community Roundtable, to be held Oct. 26, will offer timely updates on changes recently made in the Da Vinci Implementation Guides and offer an outlook for next year.

The event, “Current State: HL7 Da Vinci Implementation Guide Progress in 2022,” will be held online from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET.

The Da Vinci Project is a private-sector initiative that accelerates the adoption of HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7® FHIR®) as the standard to support and integrate value-based care (VBC) data exchange across communities. The goal of the project is to help payers and providers positively impact clinical, quality, cost and care management outcomes, enabling providers to see the right data at the right time for patient-centered care.

The Da Vinci Project’s September Community Roundtable to be held September 28 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET

As fee for service shifts to value-based care, value-based contracts have emerged as a mechanism that providers and payers may use to better align their contracting structures with broader changes in the healthcare system.

"Dive Into Performance Reporting for Value-Based Contracts,” this month’s Da Vinci Community Roundtable presentation by representatives from Humana, Providence and the Da Vinci PMO, provides you with front-row access to HL7 Da Vinci Project’s newest use case that aims to develop an HL7 FHIR Implementation Guide to support value-based performance reporting for quality and risk contracts.

The Da Vinci Project’s March Community Roundtable to be held March 30 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET

Invite your product and technical teams to register for March's HL7 Da Vinci Project Community Roundtable Ready, Set, Test: Prepare Now to Test Da Vinci Implementation Guides.

This essential primer will delve into the IGs and help you identify what you want to test, who needs to be involved, and the tools involved in the testing process so that you are prepared for HL7 and CMS Connectathons.

This session will provide brief updates on Implementation Guides (IGs) and use cases as well as resources to aid testing and Connectathon preparation efforts.

With this basic knowledge you can create your own roadmap to readiness while helping improve industry interoperability.

• Vanessa Candelora, HL7 Da Vinci Project Manager, and Senior Consultant, Point-of-Care-Partners
• Robert Dieterle, Da Vinci Sr. Advisor and Chief Executive Officer, EnableCare, LLC
• Yan Heras, HL7 Da Vinci Project Lead and Technical Advisor, and Principal Informaticist, Optimum eHealth

Sessions Begin Today at HIMSS22

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but did you know it also takes a village to pursue interoperability? The HL7 Da Vinci Village is at HIMSS22 in Orlando this week, March 14-18. Also featured at the conference will be approximately 20 Da Vinci member organizations, presenting in 60-minute general education sessions and 20-minute Spotlight Theater and Innovation Live sessions—all aimed at helping to solve interoperability challenges.

Kiosk Village

HL7 Da Vinci Project Kiosk Village will be located in the Interoperability Showcase, Hall E Booth, #8240 at Kiosks 9 -16. Stop by to learn more about The Da Vinci Project’s efforts and how you can access resources.

Marketplace Kiosks at the HL7 Da Vinci Village include:

• Kiosk 12 & 13: HL7 Da Vinci Project
• Kiosk 9: healow Insights
• Kiosk 10: Cognizant
• Kiosk 11: InterSystems Corporation
• Kiosk 14: Anthem, Inc.
• Kiosk 15: Edifecs
• Kiosk 16: Optum

Member Booth HL7 Da Vinci Office Hours

Learn more by stopping by member booths when HL7 Da Vinci Project PMO staff are on hand to answer questions. They include:

• Change Healthcare, Booth # 1531, Wednesday, March 16, 10:30 – 11:15 a.m.                   
• Edifecs, Booth # 5171, Wednesday, March 16, 4 – 4:30 p.m.    
• MCG, Booth # 8185, March 15, 3:30 – 4 p.m.
• Smile CDR Inc., Booth #3901, March 15, 4:15 – 4:35 p.m.

Executives From Allscripts, healow Insights Will Share Their Latest Efforts Using FHIR Guidelines

The Da Vinci Project’s February Community Roundtable to be held Feb. 23 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET

In this month’s Community Roundtable, the HL7 Da Vinci Project is exploring how EHRs are key to interoperability success with a discussion on electronic health record (EHR) vendors featuring Allscripts and healow Insights. 

The session will showcase how the role of HL7® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource (FHIR®) and the Da Vinci implementation guides are impacting their product roadmaps and related integration efforts to improve workflow, maximize efficiencies and improve patient care. Guest speakers will include:

• Jeff Danford, Sr. Principal Software Engineer, Allscripts
• Seth Paradis, Sales and Business Development Manager, Payer Engagement Division, healow Insights

The Da Vinci Project’s January Community Roundtable to be held Jan. 26 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. ET